Piet Keizer was born in Amsterdam in 1943 and was playing for his home-town club, Ajax, as a teenager. A one club man he would spend 15 years patrolling the left-side for them, playing in all 3 of their back-to-back European Cup triumphs. However, he is in some ways a man betrayed by history. Denied significant involvement in Holland’s run to the final of the 1974 World Cup Final following a fall-out with his former Ajax coach Rinus Michels and long retired by the time of their repeat trip to the final in 1978, it has become all too easy to airbrush Keizer from the potted history of Dutch football in the 1970s. Thanks to the efforts of Cruyff, Neeskens, Rep, Rensenbrink and Haan in those tournaments that so lit up households the world over, live and in colour, it is they whose names resonate with fans today. Indeed, Piet Keizer is perhaps destined to be remembered and defined in relation to the great Johan Cruyff, despite being the pre-eminent force in that glorious Ajax side. Piet Keizer was, if you like, Cruyff before Cruyff…

Velibor Vasovic, the Ajax defender who captained the side to their Wembley triumph, recalled watching his first Ajax game from the stands before signing for the club. He was instantly transfixed by Cruyff but there was no doubt as to the standing of Keizer back in 1966: ‘I was very surprised. Johan Cruyff played on the left wing but this Yugoslav woman told me I didn’t need to watch this young boy because left wing was the position of the club’s best player, Piet Keizer. After the game I said to her: “You can tell the president that if they have anyone better than this player, they don’t need me”.’

Colleagues who remember Keizer at the peak of his powers in the 1960s are effusive in their praise of the remarkable qualities of their team-mate. Sjaak Swart, who played for Ajax from 1956 to 1973, remembers: ‘Keizer was a fantastic player. When he stood still with the ball, he could play a pass that would take out 3 men and leave you free on goal.’

As the young Cruyff emerged as a player, however, debate among fans, journalists and players alike turned to the two geniuses of the Ajax side. The star players in a team playing Total Football. The best of the best:

“One key debate at the time was whether Piet Keizer or Johan Cruyff was the greater artist. Cruyff was electrifying and the most dramatic presence on the field; Keizer better fitted the bill as the moody, elusive and almost dilettante creative genius on the field. The oddly upright, long-striding Keizer had a precise, accurate, near-visionary style. He had a unique scissoring run, could dribble past several defenders at once and delighted in deceptive curling crosses and passes.” [David Winner, Brilliant Orange]

Keizer may have been moody and elusive on the field but it was his more inclusive attitude off the field that was to lead to the break up of the great Ajax side. When George Knobel took over the reigns at Ajax in 1973 he held a pre-season meeting, casually announcing that there would be a secret ballot to decide the new captain. Although it was presented as a tradition, nobody in the dressing room had heard of such a thing before. Cruyff was the captain and was stunned by events. When the ballot revealed Keizer had received significantly more votes than the incumbent Cruyff, the die had been cast and the chain of events that saw the world’s greatest player leaving the world’s greatest side for Barcelona was set in motion. As a man-management exercise it was a disaster but Barry Hulshoff (Ajax, 1966-1977) remains in no doubt that Keizer was the better leader: ‘Keizer was more about the team. Johan put himself in a more exceptional position; so when things had to be done for the team, Piet Keizer was better.’

Although the captaincy issue was undeniably the catalyst for the dismantling of the great Ajax team, in truth, there was bound to be a natural decline as so many remarkable players reached the end of the road with the side. Just over a year later, in October 1974, Piet Keizer walked out on Ajax following a row over tactics with the latest coach, Hans Kraay. In typically enigmatic style, Keizer was also to walk away from football.. for good. As David Winner memorably relates: ‘For three decades Keizer refused even to kick a ball again, on one occasion famously stepping away from the ball as it rolled towards him on the touchline while he stood watching his son play in a boys’ game.’

And so a brilliant career was brought to an end. A career that saw Piet Keizer achieve everything there was to achieve in the club game, doing it with style and panache as part of arguably the finest team to ever play the game. Perhaps the final, albeit cryptic, word is best left to the noted Dutch writer, Nico Scheepmaker:

According to the book "brilliant orange" there was a debate about who was better Cruyff or Keizer. Cruyff was described as electrifying with dramatic presence on the field...and Keizer as moodly elusive and a creative genius on the field....hmmm I've only seen a little bit of Keizer on footage as by 1974 Rensenbrink was on the scene and Keizer was 34.

desriptions of Keizer from the book, " upright, long striding, precise, accurate, visionary style, had a unique scissoring run, could dribble past several defenders at once, and delighted in deceptive curled passes and crosses."

"One trick was to look one way and flick a perfect pass in the opposite direction....in a match against PSV he leaned forward as if to hammer the ball with his head only to stop still and exaggerate the gesture, the ball slid from his forehead and floated in the far corner of the net".

He didn't chase back and was a prima donna and mysterious and did not get on with Michels and Cruyff.

I would look at his technique, agility, passing, and dribbling - they are on the right track- maybe anudge higher - I will try to search for more pre-1974 footage on you tube, but to me Keizer's stats probably a touch low in one or two areas - then again the era here is when he was 31-35. But to be compared to Cruyff he must have been some player.

I've added some Additional Links to the first post, fixed some colours, added Attack/Defence Awareness Card and narrowed his Era from 1970-1975 to 1970-1973 (as far as I know his final decline starts in 1974 and in 1975 he decides to retire).

Also, I was very surprised that he didn't have S19: Quick Scissor Dribble (since it was one of his trademarks), so I've added that as well.

Besides those two things, I've raised following:

Free Kick Accuracy: 77>80 (I saw him scoring a few free kicks and sending good passes from quite a few free kicks),Curling: 82>86 (I think he's on the similar level as modern Giggs),

Form/Condition/Fitness: 5>6 (played >30 games per season),Weak Foot Accuracy: 5>6 & Weak Foot Frequency: 3>4 (he didn't use his right foot too much, but when he occasionally did, he would control the ball pretty nice and shoot or pass with good precision).

P.S. Off course, with these tweaks I don't mean any disrespect towards zingo it's just that some things needed straight away fixing (like adding S19 card or raising Condition), so I just decided to try and fix every small thing (I spotted) along the way.

Keizer was an exceptional player, in the Ajax heydays of the seventies there were still many who put him above Cruyff. Not so much in effectivity but in artristry and style. He was very different as a person though, he wasn't the type that liked to be in the centre of attention. The same goes for Rensenbrink. They lacked his pace, but technically both weren't any less than Cruyff, in some areas even better.

But when a player gets sort of godlike status, all of his skills seem to be tad overrated, and those of the guys he played with a tad underrated. For instance, Keizer had better shooting technique than Cruyff. He had a magical left foot, comparable to brazilian footballers like Rivelino, Dirceu and Eder.Cruyff had his special outside foot spassing and shooting which is his trademark, but wan't such a sweet striker with the instep of the foot. That's why he never took free kicks.You also see this with van Basten, who was a more complete forward than Papin but not as good in ST (but rated 99!). Papin scored way more incredible goals with volleys and from impossible angles. The matter is, everybody remembers Marco's epic goal in the Euro 88 final against Russia, and of course there were couple of great overheads.

I know the Cruyff topic is closed, but Keizer's ST should be in red figures (95/96).I'd take his TECH into orange, I suppose 92-94.

Regarding height, Keizer was a tall player, especially for a winger in those days (You can already see this in the video). I can't find any data, but he must be at least 1.84m (now he's 1.75 here). He was also a little heavier.Clearly taller than Cruyff who's listed in PES at 1.80 but according to my information from old Dutch eighties magazines is 1.77m. He's certainly not taller than Rensenbrink who's 1.78m (and who's also underrated in TECH).A picture to illustrate this (where Keizer was a clearly a few ounces heavier than mentioned above)

Last edited by frontrunner on 2011 Mar 24, 22:08, edited 4 times in total.

Didn't notice it earlier but I see Electric trigger already made some good comments on the Keizer/Cruyff comparison.He did get along with Cruyff though, not always but Cruyff held Keizer in very high esteem and vice versa.)

It's true that there were people who thought Keizer was better than Cruyff, but it's hard to mention an attribute were Keizer deserves higher stats...I think agility may be a bit higher and DA also even higher. If something should be in red it's DA imo. Maybe a bit higher ACC, but a bit lower TS then. Btw, isn't mentality just very low??

From what ive seen of him in Ajax's 3 consecutive Euro cup finals he was a superb mercurial winger. He had that whole Hoddle/Berbatov/Socrates ethos about him when not on the ball he looked disinterested in the game, just slouching around the pitch but on the ball he was masterful, very much a technical/tactical dribbler who liked to slow down on the ball and lull the defender in before beating him. At times though he'd sudddently burst to life and take on multiple players with a dribbling scissor run and show decent acc, constantly providing pinpoint accurate crosses or long balls which were floated with alot of dip . ( you can see an example of his superb crossing here for his assist for Cruyff against Inter which Cruyff killed the ball instantly and just tapped it in (3:31) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJqPv9soe4o) also provided to cross for Cruyff's second goal from a free kick)

Technically and in terms of pure ball control he was pretty godly, as a playmaking winger id compare him to such players like Lennart Skoglund or Luis Figo. He never really sprinted he'd only make 20 yards dribbling runs at a time so id give him a 3 point gap between top speed and acc

“One key debate at the time was whether Piet Keizer or Johan Cruyff was the greater artist. Cruyff was electrifying and the most dramatic presence on the field; Keizer better fitted the bill as the moody, elusive and almost dilettante creative genius on the field. The oddly upright, long-striding Keizer had a precise, accurate, near-visionary style. He had a unique scissoring run, could dribble past several defenders at once and delighted in deceptive curling crosses and passes.” [David Winner, Brilliant Orange]

Cruyff was clearly the talisman of the side constantly roaming around the pitch orchestrating things and taking on players , but time and time again the team turned to Keizer to provide the final ball or pass, he could easily move into the middle and play as a classic number 10 if he wanted to. He did this in the second half against Panathinaikos and constantly switched positions with Cruyff against Bayern Munich in 73. After the 74 world cup decided to quit football, because Ajax coach Hans Kraay Sr. wouldn't move him to midfield. He was tired of running down the flanks and decided it was up to a new crop of youngsters to defend the name of Ajax.

‘Keizer was more about the team. Johan put himself in a more exceptional position; so when things had to be done for the team, Piet Keizer was better.’ -Barry Hulshoff

Height 175cm > 183/184cm ( definitely taller like frontrunner said, again in that clip I showed you he seems roughly the same height when standing next to Inter goalkeeper Ivano Bordon who is listed as 183cmWeight: 73>80 kg (estimate, taken from old pes 06 option file)

Def> 44>35 pretty much absent in defensive duties did sometime come deep to receive the ball, probably more to do with lowering agression and higher teamwork)Stamina: 85>82 (didn't run around enough to deserve a higher value than that )Response: possible decrease.Top Speed: 86>83Acceleration: 85Agility: 87>88Dribble Accuracy: 91>93-95 ( Id probably go for 93, he was great but not quite at Laudrup, Dzajic's level.Dribble Speed: 87>85Short Pass Accuracy: 85>87Short Pass Speed: 79>82Shot Power: 83>85Shot Technique: 86>88Long pass accuary: 93 ( id compare to crossing to Inter Milan legend Mario Corso)Long pass speed: was thinking about lowering this to 80 as he balls where usually floated in his cut back passes had decent enough pace to be 82 though Free Kick Accuracy: 80>83 ( pretty intresting that such a mecrurial player preferred to blast his freekicks r.carlos style)Curling: 86>90Header: 71Jump: 75Technique: 89>92-94Aggression: 91>85 ( same as Skoglund, Figo)Mentality/Tenacity: 71 ( 69 maybe still a bit harsh could be closer to Hoddle/SocratesGoalkeeper Skills: 50Team Work: 85>88 Weak foot Accuary: 7He was a bit more two footed than that, could be just as precise with his righted cross/shots like his left

I was thinking about incisive run as well. He often drifted infield at times appeared to take up good positions in the box (as seen agaisnt Inter Milan) but he didnt exactly dribble infield from wide areas)

" If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." - Isaac Newton

Great update, think we have a very realistic Keizer now.You did your research all right.. I see you didn't raise his ST as much as I first suggested. In the end that's better because I forgot that ST in PES is different than what you call Shooting Technique in real life. Being a very clean ballstriker ( who can curve as well) like Keizer was, and lika several Brazilian cracks from the 70's/80's were, and also a guy like Beckham isn't really represented with ST here.(they all only have ST only in yellow).His free kicks often had good swerve as well.PES ST is more about being able to shoot from all kind of positions combined with acrobatism. Keizer wasn't really like that, his ball striking abilty is better defined in a comination of pretty high SP,ST, SA, Curling and FKA all together (And high LPA). I only think that his agility could be lowered a bit, he relied more on superb DA and control than on fast turns etc. Though looking stylish and elegant, he perhaps paradoxically had also a certain (deceiving) stiffishness about him.. maybe that's what David Winner described as "oddly upright and long striding". You wouldn't really expect him to shine in gymnastics or something like that. In that respect, I can relate very well to the comparisson with Socrates/Hoddle. He also had that flegmatic aura about him. Like Bergkamp, there's a lot written about him in a poetic way. Probably the most enigmatic footballer ever to come from Holland.

I was slightly taken aback by that Shot tech figure but he still was a lovely clean striker of the ball like you said. Might of overcooked it if becks and Panenka are on 85/86 though. Agree with lowering agility as well, mostly raised it because of the height/weight increase, some nice turns for his height, but a lower value might represent his languid style. An 84, same as Berbatov as Figo should be good enough.

" If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." - Isaac Newton